2023: Backlog Progress
I had another amazing year playing a lot of games I’d been excited about, unfortunately its my lowest year in a while for games played, but felt great to beat some really lengthy ones that I always find daunting to start, Persona 5 especially…… took the opportunity to get myself invested in that knowing full too well it was going to occupy my time for at least a month, more than earnt that time with how incredible it is but definitely affected my progress this year. Same could be said about AC: Valhalla though I did stop myself further extending that with all the DLC as I was so ready for it to end despite considering it the best AC since the Ezio games! Lastly, Kingdom Come Deliverance was another big title I was able to finish, which I absolutely didn’t get tired of thanks to that amazing sense of progression you could feel from start to finish!
Luckily the backlog has remained about stable, just about resisted all the incredible releases this year and hope to reward myself with new additions over time. Top of my wishlist is Baldurs Gate 3 and has prompted me to make a start on the series (enjoyed my time with the first game a lot) and add the second game to my 2024 targets!
I was able to play the three I was most excited for that I named last year, Hogwarts Legacy (delivered on its promise of a fantastically detailed magical world to explore), Starfield (disappointing overall but still had a really good time which is a guarantee from this kind of game for me), and Star Wars Jedi Survivor (loved it as much as the first one and made its way onto my favourites for the year).
A few others I’d like to mention that aren’t listed in my favourites are finally playing Nier after having it on my priority for so many years now, it was worth the wait and have heard that its sequel improves on a lot of what I enjoyed about Replicant so its back on the priority list again! Despite the bad reaction to the GTA remasters I took the chance to play the older games in the series for the first time, which turned out to be timely with the news about GTA 6 at long last, and also a revisit to San Andreas which is an all time favourite, I’ve added IV to my priority list for next year. Beating Dark Souls 3 and Sekiro a few months after each other felt some achievement… just about recovered to be ready for Elden Ring soon (another huge game!!).
And there’s so many others I’d like to talk about…. feel free to ask about any I’ve played this year, the full list can be found here.
My key targets for 2024 are below, with a few repeats from last year… I decided to wait on Cyberpunk for the DLC and its final updates, and ended up choosing a full series Final Fantasy playthrough rather than starting at VII, so far I’ve been enjoying the pixel remasters, have FFV next. In terms of new releases, there’s not really anything that stands out on my wishlist for 2024 as a must buy, ones I’m most excited for aren’t guaranteed to come out, but if they do I’d really want to play Hades II, Hollow Knight: Silksong, and Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, each of them will no doubt make me want to replay the earlier entries, can hear the backlog’s judging sigh!!!
Think this year more than any year so far I’ve been feeling time strained and struggling to stay on top of everything as it has felt like something ‘must play’ has arrived every other week, whilst I’ve been playing those must plays from previous years. Feels a bit overwhelming but I guess too many to choose from is a nice problem to have.
2023: Favourites
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Dark Souls III
43 hours playtime
35 of 43 achievements
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Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - The Definitive Edition
29 hours playtime
11 of 35 achievements
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Kingdom Come: Deliverance
86 hours playtime
44 of 82 achievements
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Persona 5 Royal
172 hours playtime
53 of 53 achievements
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STAR WARS Jedi: Survivor™
75 hours playtime
no achievements
2024: Targets
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Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition
0 minutes playtime
0 of 93 achievements
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Cyberpunk 2077
0 minutes playtime
0 of 57 achievements
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DEATH STRANDING DIRECTOR'S CUT
0 minutes playtime
0 of 63 achievements
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Divinity: Original Sin 2
0 minutes playtime
0 of 97 achievements
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ELDEN RING
0 minutes playtime
0 of 42 achievements
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Final Fantasy VII
0 minutes playtime
0 of 36 achievements
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Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition
0 minutes playtime
0 of 55 achievements
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Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
5 hours playtime
0 of 42 achievements
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NieR:Automata™
0 minutes playtime
0 of 47 achievements
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Yakuza 0
0 minutes playtime
0 of 55 achievements
You got some really nice games done there!
There is a new Dragon Age game? O.O Dunno how to handle that information right now hides
I did think about playing the first two Baldur’s Gate games… but I’ll just jump into the cold water and play the 3rd… kinda did expect to be challenged in PoP for it… but that didn’t happen. So I’ll try to find some spot for it. After Hogwarts Legacy xD
But yeah, I should just turn 2024 into a “big games” year… Which will never work out for me. lol
Hope you’ll enjoy DS DC! \o/ And Cyberpunk and… well all of them obv!
Thanks ninglor :) Haha yeah you should be hiding if you only just found out now!! It’s going to be like a decade since Inquisition which is just unbelievable to me, how can sequels take so long………! Still no guarantee it will come out next year though but here’s hoping.
Ooh good luck with that, I’m sure you won’t be alone in jumping straight into the third game, lets just say BG1 hadn’t aged the best but still enjoyed the experience overall, but yeah think its definitely a bit of an ask to get you to play something from the 90s! So reckon BG3 will be newcomer friendly for sure.
Ahh yeah I had to take a break from PoP for that exact reason as I wanted to prioritise a few games and knew Persona 5 would take a huge amount of time, but do miss it and hope to return at some point! Hogwarts Legacy was fantastic imo, how have you been finding it?
Thank you! Do you have any tips for enjoying Death Stranding? Think Cyberpunk will have a huge chance of getting on my favourites next year as it looks like the exact kind of game I’ve been looking for, can’t wait!
I know, right? Like HOW CAN MASS EFFECT TAKE FOREVER TO COME OUT? O.O
I’ll have a look at the new DA tho :3
Yeah, I’ll skip BG 1 and 2, I already went through that for the Witcher and maybe regret that, so not gonna do that again xD
I’ll be honest with HL: I had a bit of trouble getting into it, bc it’s so openworld and all over the place. But after getting my head straight what I want to do and when I want to do it, I finally fell in love - and yes, as a Potterhead I kinda have to ignore a few things, but I can do that and just enjoy the game. They obv rebuild Hogwarts later, right? xD
Mhm… don’t be afraid of the harder level for the deliveries. It might seem hard at first but after you figure out how things work, you can totally dive into it! And don’t be afraid of letting the main story hang behind and doing all the deliveries you can get for those stars! Oh, and always pose in front of the mirror! :3 (Assuming you want 100%, which you want, bc it’s DS and… you might not want that. Oh well.) Rush building the roads, you’ll get loads of points for them! \o/
I feel like I’ll have to edit the spoilers x’D
Oh yeah, Cyberpunk… it’s madness how I got HL, Cyberpunk (CP?) and BG3 gifted last year! Gotta catch play them all!
Haha! Its Mass Effect’s turn after Dragon Age…… if they could just release them both together that would be lovely, maybe help forgive how long it has been!!!! Also that is funny you got it pop up right afterwards, its a sign surely, not sure of what, but thats too much of a coincidence!
Lol I did the same with Witcher, enjoyed the first two a lot, but the third was clearly a step up in so many ways! If not just for gwent…. ahh I’m going to have to replay that at some point.
I hadn’t even considered the Hogwarts rebuilds involved for it to make sense haha! Yeah it took me a bit of time too to get into it too, has some pretty magical moments early on in the story as you’re unlocking things and seeing stuff for the first time, and kinda had to resist that temptation to go off and explore until I had all the spells unlocked, so that was a bit frustrating. Hopefully if there’s a sequel there will be less of that if you have the essentials already learned.
Thanks for the tips for DS, I’ll definitely keep that in mind as I really don’t have much of an idea what to expect from it, hoping I do enjoy it enough to want to 100% it!
That would be too nice to actually happen o.o
I’d just replay it for gwent O.O
Yeah, I kinda did that exploring part xD Until I figured I should first get my spells together. So now the right order :3
Hope those are actually good tips xD
The race almost killed me, bc I’m bad with race games. But I managed, I bet you can too! The rest is sometimes a bit grindy, but I loved that kinda grind, bc it feels like you help ppl in need by running around and delivering packages :3
Funny story: I just looked at the first game from my queue aaaaaand it’s DA xD
Haha, I have it the same way. XDDD Even though I enjoy coming back to my favorite games it doesn’t prevent me from buying many new ones. ^^
Also, nice progress! Best of luck to the New Year. :)
Thanks for the comment! Haha yeah there’s something comforting about returning to something you know you’ll like… I’ve been trying my best to avoid it whilst I focus on the backlog but with Dragon Age especially I’ve been itching to do a replay of that series for some time and will definitely use the excuse of Dreadwolf to finally do it!!! Love that series.
Cheers :) Overall I’m pleased with it, hope you have a good year of gaming next year too!
Yeah, that’s exactly the feeling. <3 Don’t start with Dragon Age… I have been thinking about it for the whole year, with the Dreadwolf coming I might succumb to the calling. XD
The most important thing is to enjoy your games, everything else is mundane (in terms of backlog progression of course)! ;)
Thanks. :3
Haha the calling!! Ok if that was a deliberate reference you may just be the biggest Dragon Age fan I know. Don’t resist it, the taint will overcome us if we leave it much longer :P
Those are wise words, I definitely try to keep the backlog out my mind when I’m playing so I’m never in a hurry to finish and can take my time, otherwise you’re right it does become a bit silly! Thanks for clarifying I shouldn’t treat everything else in my life as mundane lol, I was about ready to quit my job and dedicate myself to the backlog for good, sigh!
Oh my, the calling! XDDD I am really tempted to say that it was completely intentional… but it wasn’t. ;) Shows my true color as a fan. ^^
Hahaha! :D I had a feeling you would do something silly like quitting your job for the sake of your games, but luckily I have prevented it! ;)
Haha damn ok that makes me feel better about stealing that next time I need to describe my dragon age replay urges, its too perfect!!!
Maybe just a one year hiatus may be a good compromise, I’ll check the guidelines for any mention of gaming backlogs.